Everybody who knows me well will know dat i luv travelling, reading/browsing/watching the dvd/vcd ’bout new places…lately, i found dat the one who introduced me to "dat kind" of things was exactly my grandma’s old maid…

When i was around 3-4 years old, she was no longer working for my grandma…she worked der when my mom and the siblings (7 altogether!!) were still kids…No one knew her full name…so i just followed my mom called her "mbok Toen" ("mbok" is a javanese polite calling for women aged around 40’s and above)…Though she was no longer my grandma’s employee,but she always comes to visit my grandmas n her old colleagues who’s still work at my grandma’s house…her visit was around 2-3 times every year…

She dressed neatly…as Javanese women usually wear…kebaya, sewek, and the hair was always combed backways with a big "konde" at the back of her heads (her fave kebaya colour was any of bright colours)…she’s a heavy smoker…i remember always sit near my grandma and her…as long as they both were talking ’bout anything, i was watching her smoking cigarette (the traditional one…tingwe…nglinthing dhewe…wrapped-it-yourself (the tobacco and the wrapping paper are sold separately and u should wrap ‘em yourself whenever u want to smoke)…the tobacco smell followed her eniwhere she moved…

Usually, after she finished talking to my grandma, i felt dat "my time" has arrived to "interview" her…my first sentence was always…"come on, tell me your story"…she would answer,"what story?" and my second "demand" would be,"tell me where you’ve been all this long after your last visit"…and her stories would flow like a river…

Some places she mentioned i never imagine dat they were really exist here in indonesia. Indonesia is an archipelago…it was a lil bit hard for a 4 years old child to mastered the archipelago…Places she mentioned regularly were Yogya, Samarinda, Krebet (i didnt know where it is…maybe it is somewhere in east java or central java), jungles of Borneo, mountains of central and west java, etc…

As she mentioned SAMARINDA in javanese dialect…it would be sounded like SAMARENDA…"renda" is the indonesian of the word "lace"…so inside the brain of 4yrs old me…the city was covered with laces, ribbon, organdi, etc…kkkk. Sorry fon, please forgive my "wild" imagination about your hometown…but the positive side was dat…the 4yrs old me had known dat there’s a city named Samarinda in Borneo island…(remember…Indonesia is a vast archipelago…kkkk)…yup!i think it’s the beginning of my interest in digging bout new places around the world…

The creatures she met in the jungle were also completed my imagination ’bout "strange" places…but, sometimes she also mentioned ghostly creatures which thank God never haunted my mind all this years…^^…

Sadly but true, my families lost contact since years 2000…my grandma also misses her, too…when i was 4 yrs old…she’s already in her 40s…so, maybe rite now she’s already 65 or more…i hope she’s still in a pink health and not smoking anymore…i miss her heavy voice and tobacco smell…also the "mystic" places she’s visited…who knows dat in 20yrs she had been to burma,thailand, vietnam,china,etc,etc…